Beyond the Bottleneck: Financing the Grid America Needs Now

The United States has the technology to dramatically expand grid capacity. It does not yet have the financing structures, regulatory frameworks, or political alignment to do so at the speed and scale the energy transition demands. The result is a bottleneck that costs billions, slows decarbonization, and raises a pointed question: is the energy transition being shaped by the few and ultimately paid for by the many? This panel brings together regulators, investors, operators, and policy strategists to examine the structural, financial, and political obstacles standing between America and the grid it needs. Why does infrastructure that could be built in months routinely take a decade? When hyperscalers can afford to bypass the grid entirely, what does that mean for everyone who cannot? And when incentives are misaligned and capital is scarce, where does investment actually go—and where should it go?